


i am free, come water me.

by porcelain



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: And Much More - Freeform, F/M, Kylo is a cranky captain, Rey's a waitress with a penchant for mechanics, cruise ship au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 06:14:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24400069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/porcelain/pseuds/porcelain
Summary: It doesn't take Finn long to convince Rey that she needs to join him on the Resistance Cruise Line.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	i am free, come water me.

Rey was a high school dropout desperate for a ticket out of Nowhereville. It was never lost on her how unconventional her place in life was. She had only ever worked at the car junkyard with Plutt since she was 11 and got dropped in his house as a foster kid. She didn’t have the time to dream about universities and getting married when she just had to grow up, fast. _Get tough and accept the work you’re given_ , he always told her. _Don’t reach for things you’re not tall enough for._

It was all she knew. 

She didn’t love working under her slovenly foster father, it was tough, grimy work, but she did also value all the knowledge she had accrued from working with salvaged parts. Maybe she didn’t know calculus but she did know her way with a wrench. Rey loved fixing broken things, loved making things _work,_ and she was damn good at it too. She figured she could open her own autorepair shop, maybe in Tampa, or Miami, god she loved Miami… just, anything to get out of Lafeyette, get away from the emptiness. Still, she never managed to get enough cash to save up and get the fuck out of that house. Since Plutt paid her, he also took from her. It really wasn’t the best savings system. He knew she was skilled, bright. He wanted her to stay. Rey was 20—she could’ve left anytime, theoretically. But she never did. 

So Rey stuck with what she knew, which was Plutt and the junkyard and the torn up futon she was given to sleep on in the living room.

  
*******

Plutt leaves her in charge at the junkyard one day, one of those times where he’s gone to the casino. She’s working on getting some cables to spark when her phone goes off. She answers immediately when she sees the name on her screen. Finn! 

He had been her first friend—her best friend—when she moved here as a child. But when she dropped out, she hardly saw him because Finn was off—he had joined the world of cruise ships, off traveling seaport to seaport on the Resistance Cruise. And now he’s in town for a weekend layover on land to see his family, and they _seriously_ need to catch up at their local dive bar that night before he leaves the next afternoon.

After a drink or two (okay, four) Finn starts talking about his job. He’s telling some story about a passenger who had drunkenly fallen off the ship and they had to stall everything just to get the wasted bastard back, and she’s laughing her ass off and comments that crazy things probably happen all the time on that ship.

“Man, it really is _fucking_ hard work. It’s tough. It’s around the clock. I haven’t had 8 hours of sleep since high school. But when you get to dock and see things the rest of your family has never seen… a sunset in Barbados, dolphins in Jamaica... then all the crazy shit you deal with every day seems worth it.” 

“Wow,” Rey says, breathless. “It sounds amazing. I can’t even imagine.” 

Finn looks at her for a beat. Then his eyes bulge out and he waves at the bartender for another two shots. “Holy shit, REY. Rey! That’s it.”

“What’s it?” She grabs the shot and holds it gingerly. 

“You’ve always wanted to leave this place. You don’t have jackshit in your bank account. And you don’t NEED jackshit to go work on a ship.”

Rey stares at him like he’s grown a third eye. He starts rambling manically about how the ship isn’t really _openly_ hiring at the moment, but he has it in good with Maz, the manager of the Cantina bar and he swears he can get her on discreetly and have her working under the table, cash only, until paperwork can be officially filed. “Swear on my life, it’s been done before, this company is shady as fuuuuck, we had one busser on for 2 years before he decided he _wanted_ insurance— ”

“I don’t know, Finn, I mean, that’s like, _really_ not legal—” 

“Oh, right, like most of the shit _Plutt_ does is legal, right?” 

Well, she doesn’t have a rebuttal for that one. Yeah, of course, she’s a little apprehensive. Stuck in confined spaces for months on end, crazy long shifts, oh and also ILLEGALLY working doesn’t exactly sound like the escape she’s been looking for. But then again, _anything_ has to be better than being where she is now. Finn wiggles his eyebrows at her, urging her to take their final shots now, so they do and maybe it’s burning hot whiskey coating her throat, or maybe it’s just that it’s now or never, but she says sure, why not? 

Really, what does she have to lose?

“That’s the spirit,” Finn says. “Joey! Get us another round! And an uber to my house!”


End file.
